Majlis Deputy Ali Motahari showed how conservative he really is
this week as he lambasted President Ahmadi-nejad for opposing firm
enforcement of the dress code.

Motahari, the loudest critic of the president in the Majlis,
suggested Ahmadi-nejad should now move to open "nightclubs" in
the Islamic Republic, since he is supposedly loose on social issues.

Fars news agency quoted Motahari as saying that the
president's alleged lax views on the Islamic dress code had allowed
women, directly and indirectly, to dress in a way promoting "sexual
provocation."

"The situation of the veil is tragic,... thanks to apparent
and hidden encouragement by the president," Fars quoted Motahari as
saying.

Ahmadi-nejad and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, have
promoted a situation in which girls now "wear trousers, and coats
that don't cover the knees," Motahari said. "They have
actually allowed sexual provocation... Now they should think of opening
night-clubs and cabarets," he said sarcastically.

Motahari's comments recalled the attacks on Abraham Lincoln
for his opposition to slavery, with opponents saying that meant he was
for all sorts of race mingling. Lincoln responded, "That I do not
wish a black woman to be my slave does not mean that I want her to be my
spouse."

In the recent Majlis elections, Motahari led his own slate of
conservatives against two other conservative slates. His slate did not
do well in the first round. He made an open appeal for reformist votes.
In the second round, he united his slate with the reformists, but still
did poorly, although he himself was re-elected easily. His harsh stand
on the dress code, however, will likely end all hopes of an alliance
with the reformists.

Ahmadi-nejad has often dismissed the regime's intense concern
for the dress code. In 2005, at his first news conference after his
election, he was asked if he would enforce the code more stringently. He
responded cuttingly, "I have more important things to do." The
president has also advocated allowing women to attend soccer games,
which has infuriated the clergy. He has opposed efforts to segregate college classrooms by gender. And he was caught on film kissing the hand
of his aged first-grade teacher, to the utter disgust of the
conservative establishment.

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Iran's so-called morality police have launched a crack-down in
recent weeks on women deemed clad in "un-Islamic" attire. The
crackdown is part of an annual spring campaign before the heat of
summer, when women try to shed some of their mandatory clothing.

The operations see police screening foot and vehicle traffic at
major junctions and shopping centers, and lead to fines and even
arrests.

Several conservative deputies criticized Motahari's extreme
comments and demonstrated their intolerance for spoken words with which
they disagree. One, Mohammad Esmail Kosari, called on the Judiciary to
take up the issue and hold the lawmaker to account.

"The statements by Motahari are immoral," raged
Hamid-Reza Fouladgar, deputy for Esfahan.

The Fars news agency, which is close to the conservatives, accused
Motahari of playing games with "counter-revolutionary media,"
thus portraying an ultra-rightist position as foreign-inspired, and not
just liberal positions.

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